


One Big Happy Family

by I_llbedammned



Category: Captain America (Movies), Firefly
Genre: Adventure, Crew as Family, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2018-02-10 23:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2044893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_llbedammned/pseuds/I_llbedammned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The crew of the Firefly found a mysterious man frozen as they drifted through space.  They have gotten attached the man and adopted him into their makeshift family.  Together they go to raid a slaver train on a jungle planet, a standard mission, when suddenly they are attacked by the Reapers.  Life just got a whole lot more complicated</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Big Happy Family

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dangerous Cargo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1962762) by [storiesfortravellers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers). 



> This was written originally for the Crossover slot for the avland community on Livejournal. I really like the way it turned out and I hope everyone likes it. It was inspired by a Firefly/Winter Soldier fic I read a little while ago. I really liked the idea of Bucky being found by the crew of the Firefly and wanted to play with the dynamic of the crew with his damaged psyche.

It had been a week since the strange man had become firmly cemented with the crew. Mal had docked the ship on a jungle planet in an effort to try and liberate some food and money from the very generous slavers and war profiteers that had set up a base on the planet's surface. It would be a shame if he didn't take them up on their hospitality. They had gone through all the trouble of setting up trade routes; it would be a shame not to pay them a visit. 

"Alright crew this should be a standard liberation mission. Get in, get out, and if the chains on the slaves happen to be broken in the process of trading no one will hold you accountable."

"That an order, sir?" Zoe asked with a smirk.

"Just make sure that you don't get caught in the process." he answered.

"Vera won't let us get caught. She's awfully jealous when people try to take away her friends." Jayne answered.

"Maybe they'll have some new parts with them. I've been trying to upgrade the cannons for a while now, but we still haven't located some particle accelerators."

"You like machine parts?" The haunted man asked.

She turned towards him with a smile, "Sure do. Machines are interesting, complicated and predictable in the same motion."

The man nodded with a business-like look on his face and the doctor of the ship glowered at him. River giggled.

"Alright crew. You have your mission. Time to get to it." Mal said with a quick nod, "Dismissed."

Mal had to admit that the man was growing on him in a bizarre way. The man would wander about the ship like a lost puppy and he almost felt bad for him, almost. If you could look past the way that he stared at everything like he was seeing it for the first time you could almost fancy him a decent sort of soldier.

"You ever been on a ship this fine before?" Mal asked, seeing the mechanical arm of his new found crew member ghost over the insides of the ship with an almost reverent touch as they landed. The ship let out a pleased hiss as pistons released themselves and the ship relaxed.

The man shook his head, "Been on a plane before. I remember that much."

The fact that the man answered him nearly made Mal stunned, but a man like him would not be bested by a simple bit of speech from a damaged specimen. He preened a bit at being able to show off his dear Serenity, "Well we have a few upgrades on a plane. This little baby was the cutting edge of technology when we got her. She was nice and dolled up for us and has been a good date since then."

The man turned and looked at the captain with those odd haunted eyes that made Mal want to shiver, "I like flying. It reminds me."

Mal waited for an awkward minute in silence before he jumped forward. "You're gonna have to fill in some of the blanks for me there, partner. What does it remind you of?"

The man paused and shook his head, "People. Shadows I used to know, that I can almost picture the face of."

Great, more cryptic talk- it wasn't like they had enough of a time trying decipher River's speech now they had to try and get what this guy was trying to say as well. The whole world was going to the crazies and he was going down with them.

The crew left to go meet their slaver friends armed to the teeth. They intended to have a peaceful meeting, truly they did, but the dardnest thing happened: somehow their train happened to get knocked off the tracks by one well placed grenade. Jayne had to stop himself from smiling at that awful turn of events, the poor soul that he was. The slavers had come out real angry-like, but the three that had come out seemed to calm down a lot when they saw the arsenal that the crew of the Serenity packed with them. 

The crew dug into the spilled guts of the train with gusto, taking what food they could and loading it on the back of the horses they were borrowing from the port. River had taken to dancing through the wreckage of the train, every now and again sounding a cry as she found a new container of food or slaves that needed to be liberated. Kaylee followed her with a lock pick, breaking open any locks that weren't already broken open. The man with the mechanical arm had pinned a slaver to the ground with one fluid motion when he had attempted to punch Zoe as she passed by. That violence seemed to quiet the other ones down. A group of ten people accumulated outside of the train, rubbing at the spots on their wrists where chains used to bind them and looking none-too-pleased with the slavers.

"I do believe this is your cue to leave." Simon said.

Mal looked at him sourly, "You're stealing my thunder."

The slavers took off at a run, not bothering to look back. The freed captives looked at Mal with suspicion. He motioned at them to get lost, "Get out of here. I have no interest in getting to know you or getting a debt from you. Just go lead free lives, that's enough for me." They left with mumbled sounds of thanks coming from their collective mouths.

For a minute Mal marveled that everything was actually going according to plan. There were no bizarre Reaper attacks and they would feast like kings tonight. As if on cue with Mal's thoughts River appeared out of one of the ruined cargo carts, standing bolt upright, “They're here. Very near." She said, fear in her voice.

Mal turned to go order the haunted man to get to his station, but the man was already gone. Mal cursed, "Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng, this was supposed to be a simple mission."

He unholstered his revolver and yelled to the crew, "Alright now. Everybody make their way back to the ship as fast as possible."

The reapers were on them quickly, a wave of snarling flesh and flashing knives. Mal and Jayne provided cover fire as everyone turned to run. Zoe helped Simon up as he stumbled over a rock. Fear flowed through Mal's own veins, but he wasn't going to abandon his crew right as they needed him. 

A Reaper jumped out of the woods and slashed downwards at Zoe, causing her to cry out as blood sprayed out of her arm. Something in River snapped upon hearing the cry. She grabbed a hold of the Reaper's sword arm and swept its legs out from under it. With a prodigious display of strength she drove its own sword up into its own head with a sickening thump. Another Reaper aimed a blow as her back, but the mysterious man was waiting for it. He drew a revolver and fired three shots into the back of the Reaper's twisted head. It moved sluggishly to attack him but he punched it hard in the chest with that metal arm of his and it collapsed on the ground. River moved with a fluid grace around him, now armed with a sword from the fallen Reaper, and slashed with a grace that made death into a lethal dance. Whatever programming had been inside of the machine man also kicked in and suddenly the expressionless look on his face seemed angry. He caught sword blades before they could touch him and broke their bones. Mal got too close to one and it gouged his leg before River sliced its head off.

By the time the battle ended there was a swath of destruction leading up to the ship and River and the machine man were standing back-to-back covered in blood. The man turned towards River with a smile on his face. "Not bad. Think I still got one more than you."

She answered back sounding indignant at the implication that he would be better than her at anything, "That's because you can't count; you would need three more to be equal to me."

"Are you sure they didn't mess with the number?"

"Are you sure you want to start this fight?" She said, but a deadly smile was on her face

He smirked, “Who said it would be a fight?"

"Ladies, ladies. You're both pretty." Jayne answered, "Now let's get in the ship and get off this "go tsao de" planet." 

That seemed to break them up. They still bickered a little, but the tension was easing out of their bodies. The emotional masks they both wore drew back over their face and before you knew it both were staring with calm faces out at the world. Mal was never so happy to see that blank stare back on the mysterious man's face.

The man walked up to Kaylee, taking a package wrapped in brown paper out of his bloodstained coat. She cautiously opened it before letting loose a loud squeal when she realized what it was. "A particle accelerator! Where'd you find it?"

He answered back, a small smile on his face, "I found it on the train. It looked important so I decided to save it for you."

"Shiny!" She exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. She gave him a brief hug, before going to change her clothes and work with her new present.

Back in the med bay Mal and Zoe were side-by-side as Simon worked on their wounded arms. He would pause from the stitches periodically to disinfect the wounds. "Don't know what she sees in him." he mumbled under his breath.

Zoe laughed, "I can't believe it. You're jealous of the machine man."

"Well what type of person doesn't even give you their name upon meeting them? It all seems very suspicious to me."

"Weren't you just arguing to keep him on the ship last week?'

"Yeah, but that was before. Things have changed since then."

"She's allowed to have other friends, you know." Zoe said defensively, running a hand over her new stitches.

"But why him?" Simon questioned.

Mal has a sharp intake of air at the needle started sewing him back together, "I don't rightly care what personal business is like between you two. He's staying. He saved all of our hides back there and I'd rather not have someone like that become our enemy."

Those words seemed to quiet Simon down, though he looked none-too-pleased about the decision. Mal knew that he would adjust; they all had adjusted to Simon and his sister so the kind doctor could do the same for their newcomer. Besides, Mal had to admire how the man used a revolver and that was worth a lot out here.


End file.
